PAN: Hundreds of students on Saturday staged another protest against naming the Kabul University of Education and Training after former president Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani and blocked the entrance to the parliament building. On Cabinet’s recommendation, President Hamid Karzai issued a decree last week, renaming the university after Rabbani... Full news...

PAN: Hundreds of students at the Kabul Education University on Saturday protested a presidential announcement renaming the institute after a slain politician and former president, Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani. Rabbani, the Jamiat-i-Islami Afghanistan party leader, was assassinated along with three other members of the high peace council in a suicide attack Full news...

The Christian Science Monitor: After US Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly walked off a US base in Kandahar last March and went house to house, killing a total of 17 Afghan civilians, many worried that the Taliban would capitalize on the incident and the long restive province would revert to violence. Yet more than five months later, violence in Kandahar remains at record lows. Full news...

PAN: Thousands of residents on Friday took to the streets against the governor of eastern Laghman province, demanding his immediate removal. The protest rally was taken out from the main mosque in Mehtarlam, the provincial capital, after Friday prayers at about 2pm and lasted about an hour. Full news...

IWPR: A decree by Afghan president Hamid Karzai ordering government to improve the quality of the country’s media has created fears that the government will try to censor the press and broadcasters. Karzai gave the information and culture ministry two months to come up with an action plan to impose “minimum quality standards” on both state-run and private media outlets. Full news...

PAN: Workers of industrial companies, moneychangers, doctors, jewellers and traders went on strike in protest against rising kidnappings in western Herat province. Moneychangers, auto spare businessmen and jewelers closed their shops in the provincial capital, where business centres wore a deserted look. Full news...

Reuters: Afghan journalists are locked in a row with their government over media freedoms, in what appears to be the latest attempt by authorities to appeal to the more conservative side of society ahead of the pullout of most foreign troops. A revised media law looks to significantly tighten the government’s grip over the fledgling but lively Afghan press corps Full news...

PAN: Hundreds of people on Sunday took out a protest rally east of Kabul, asking the government to launch the distribution of land plots to them in the Qala-i-Zaman Khan locality. The protestors blocked a road leading to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for several hours against traffic in the 16th police district, chanting slogans against the municipality department. Full news...

PAN: Nearly 200 people on Tuesday staged a protest in front of the municipality and accused the department of corruption and land grabbing. The protesters accused municipal officials were involved in land corruption and asked for the distribution of plots in the Qala-i-Zaman Khan area of 16th police district of Kabul. Full news...

PAN: The Meshrano Jirga, or upper house of parliament, on Tuesday sought the suspension of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan (SPA) for calling Mujideen’s Victory Day a day of national mourning. During a demonstration in Kabul last month, activists of the party characterised mujideen’s victory as a black day in the country’s history. They also slammed the communist-led coup against President Daud Khan on April 28, 1978 as a black day. Full news...

RFE/RL: Young people swept through the streets of Kabul this week, defacing and tearing down posters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini plastered throughout the city. Meant to commemorate the anniversary of the death of the former Iranian supreme leader, the posters and large billboards have offended many in Afghanistan, a Sunni-majority country whose relations with its western neighbor have recently soured. Full news...

CMJ: On Sunday, May 20th, veterans of the Iraq, Afghanistan and the “Global War on Terror”, led by the Iraq Veterans Against the War, returned their war medals to NATO’s generals, denouncing and calling an end to these senseless wars. This past weekend, President Barack Obama hosted the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit in his hometown of Chicago. Full news...

PAN: Students staged a protest against foreign forces for detaining their schoolmates and teachers in northeastern Badakhashn province on Thursday. Two university lecturers, two schoolteachers and as many studetns were detained during a joint operation by Afghan and Internatioal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) personnel in the Gul Dara area on the outskirts of Faizabad, the provincial captial. Full news...

The Guardian: In the shadow of the Nato summit, under the watchful eyes of a phalanx of full-black-clad riot police, dozens of former servicemen and women in uniform, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, threw away their medals, with apologies. It was one of the most moving experiences many of us had witnessed in our lives. It is hard to describe in words. Full news...

SocialistWorker.org: MORE THAN 800 activists from the U.S., Europe and the Middle East gathered in Chicago for the People's Summit over the May 12-13 weekend to kick off a week of action before the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) planned for May 20-21.During the summit, government leaders will review their plans for maintaining control of war-torn Afghanistan, Africa and Kosovo... Full news...

Salam Watandar (Translated by RAWA): In today’s session of the senate, the head and its members criticized the protest of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan against the 27th and 28th April, that was held the day before. Hundreds of SPA members condemned the perpetrators of the 27th and 28th April revolutions in their demonstration, and demanded the prosecution of the Jehadi leaders and commanders, members of the Khalq and Parcham parties and the group of Taliban. Full news...

Khaama Press: Several protesters on Monday demonstrated against the war crimes which took place during 27/April/1978 after the Democractic Republic Party of Afghanistan toppled down the government of Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan and 28/April/1992 after the Mujahideen toppled down the Pro-Soviet government. Full news...

RFE/RL: A new Afghan youth group is making waves in Kabul with an unprecedented campaign against the country’s former warlords. Members of the Afghan Freedom-Loving Youth Group swept through the streets of Kabul this week, putting up hundreds of posters and spraying graffiti messages critical of the strongmen, many of whom still wield significant influence on the country’s political affairs. Full news...

Socialist Alternative: In January 2012, a video published on websites such as Youtube revealed four U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters. On February 20, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan incinerated several Qur’ans, leading to weeks of protest that left six U.S. military personnel and 30 Afghans dead. Three weeks later, U.S. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales went on an unprovoked killing spree that left 17 Afghan civilians dead, mostly children. Full news...

The Nation: I remember once I had a meeting with Hamza Khan, an old Afghan refugee, residing somewhere at a refugee camp in Peshawar. He told me that he had been in Pakistan for the last twenty years. His son Shahzeb Gul was ten years old when the family had to migrate to Pakistan; now that ten years boy is a grownup man of thirty with a family of four children and their mother. Full news...

ABC News: Our leaders have been conning the Australian public for years about the realities of international efforts in Afghanistan. The small army of activists, writers, independent journalists, academics, historians and retired diggers and diplomats who for years have been exposing their untruths usually are ignored, dismissed or ridiculed, including by mainstream media. Full news...

The Guardian: “I am – how do you say it? – persona non grata,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Davis, as he sat sipping a coffee and eating a chocolate sundae in a shopping mall, just a subway stop from the Pentagon. The career soldier is now a black sheep at the giant defence department building where he still works. Full news...

PAN: Three protestors were killed and another 33, including eight policemen injured, during a clash in northern Faryab province, officials said on Friday. More than 1,000 people took to the streets on Thursday in Maimana, the provincial capital, against the operation that resulted in the death of madraasa teacher Qayamuddin in Arab Khan area. Full news...

Stars and Stripes: The U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan was supposed to bring stability and democracy. Instead, Afghanistan remains a country on the brink of disaster – one that has clearly been exacerbated by the U.S. presence. More than 10 years after the U.S. war began, in spite of the presence of about 2,000 international aid groups, at least $3.5 billion in humanitarian funds and 58 billion USD in development assistance... Full news...

IWPR: Residents of parts of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan have accused both government and NATO forces of taking over and occupying private houses without paying compensation to the owners. A resident of Musa Qala district, Shawali, said foreign troops had been using a property belonging to him for several years without any kind of reimbursement. Full news...

CBS News: Two weeks after an American soldier in Afghanistan allegedly went on a rampage killing 17 Afghan civilians, American confidence in the war is at an all-time low, a new CBS News/New York Times poll suggests. According to the survey, conducted among 986 adults from March 21-25, just 23 percent of Americans believe the U.S. is doing the right thing by fighting in Afghanistan. Full news...

ABC News: Lately, we have been asked to believe that quite a few events in Afghanistan are anomalies, and should not be taken as more broadly representative of anything. Accidents happen, and sometimes really bad things happen, but they don’t reflect anything deeper about our war that should trouble us. Full news...

Globalist.it: We cringe when we read of medieval codes passed by the Afghan government against women. But soon we focus on political figures who are the authors and are taking that country back in history, who are replacements of the Taliban, who had been temporarily removed from power by the military intervention of 2001. Full news...

Manoramaonline: Hundreds of angry protesters Saturday chanted anti-US slogans demanding prosecution of foreign troops at a rally in Afghanistan, Press TV reported. The rally was held in the northeastern town of Tagab in Kapisa province protesting the presence of US-led forces in the country. Full news...

PAN: Residents of northern Sar-i-Pul province on Sunday warned of staging a series of protests if the governor, currently in Kabul, returned to his office. Several protests had been held against Governor Syed Anwar Rahmati over the past two months, leading the central government to send in delegations to look into the demonstrators’ demands. Full news...

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